Many systems are known by which graphics may be applied to the substrate of an artwork more quickly than by manual inscription. One system comprises a series of graphics releasably preformed on a backing sheet and having pressure sensitive adhesive on their exposed surfaces. A graphic selected from the sheet may be transferred by positioning its adhesive coated surface against a substrate and rubbing the backing sheet to adhere the graphic to the substrate while breaking its releasable bond to the backing sheet. With this system each letter must be individually oriented on the artwork, a large stock of sheets of graphics is normally required, and the system is often wasteful since the apportionment of graphics on a sheet seldom corresponds to a user's requirements.
Other systems designed to avoid these problems selectively form graphics along a coated strip material by a series of light exposures through a template. In one such system the exposed area changes color, but in another system the exposed area is latent and cannot be seen until developed photographically (see U.S. Pat. No. 2,741,831). Neither system permits the graphics to be transferred so that the entire strip must be adhered to a substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,362 suggests a system in which adhesive coated graphics are sequentially die cut from a colored adhesive coated material through a transparent deformable carrier strip. The graphics are carried in space relationship by the carrier strip until they are transferred to a substrate. The intricacy of graphics formed by die cutting is limited, however, and the fractured edges of die cut graphics may be too ragged for many applications.